EPA To Curb CO2 Sources

U.S. EPA to Curb 2 Big CO2 Sources

New rules planned in 2011 for power plants, refineries

December 24, 2010
By: Juliet Eilperin

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that it will regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries next year, targeting the nation's two biggest sources of carbon dioxide.

The move, which comes as part of a legal settlement with several states, local governments and environmental groups that sued the EPA under the Bush administration for failing to act, highlights the Obama administration's intent to press ahead with carbon-dioxide curbs despite congressional resistance.

Collectively, electric utilities and oil refineries account for almost 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions. Under the agreement, the EPA will propose new performance standards for power plants in July and for refineries in December 2011, and it will issue final standards in May 2012 and November 2012, respectively.

"We are following through on our commitment to proceed in a measured and careful way to reduce GHG pollution that threatens the health and welfare of Americans, and contributes to climate change," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement. "These standards will help American companies attract private investment to the clean energy upgrades that make our companies more competitive and create good jobs here at home."

Gina McCarthy, the EPA's assistant administrator for air and radiation, emphasized that the agency is in the early stage of regulating greenhouse gases from the two sectors and could not spell out how significantly the new rules will reduce the nation's contribution to global warming.

"You will see measurable reductions," McCarthy said

Power plants account for more than 2.3 billion tons of carbon-dioxide emissions each year, more than any other industry. Oil refineries rank well behind that as the nation's second-largest source, with emissions equivalent to more than 200 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

McCarthy said the EPA will require existing and new utilities and refineries to use "what technologies are available" to curb their carbon output and will not set an overall limit on greenhouse gases such as the cap-and-trade bill that died in the Senate.

But Charles Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, said that the proposal the EPA was envisioning is unrealistic and that his industry will urge lawmakers to block it.

"There is no best-available technology. The only thing you can do is cut production," Drevna said.

Some key lawmakers such as Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is in line to be chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next year, seemed open to the idea of halting the new rules.

"Rep. Issa is disappointed by EPA's refusal to appropriately and thoroughly consider regulations that will undoubtedly kill more jobs in an already struggling economy," said Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella in an e-mail.

However, environmentalists such as David Doniger, policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate center, said that "Congress should let EPA do its job," given that it failed to pass comprehensive climate legislation this year.